captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. the race for the white house will be decided by a few key states that could swing to either the president or mitt romney. a new quinnipiac/cbs news/"new york times" poll of likely voters finds that the president is leading in the three biggest of those states. together, those states have one- quarter of the electoral votes needed to win. in florida, president obama leads by six points, 51% to 45. he's ahead by six in ohio as well, 50 to 44. and mr. obama's biggest lead over governor romney is in pennsylvania, an 11-point advantage, 53% to 42. nancy cordes has been doing some reporting today at obama campaign headquarters in chicago, and she's been looking at the numbers. , ncy, what story do they tell? >> reporter: well, scott, the numbers were well received at

obama headquarters, as you might imagine, though they say they r those battleground states today, ohio, asking voters to give him more time to fix the economy. >> our first order of business os to recover all the jobs and wealth that was lost in the crisis. and we've made strides these last three and a half years to get that done. >> reporter: how can that pgument play in our poll? we asked voters whether president obama or governor romney would do a better job handling the economy, and they were almost evenly split. in ohio, pennsylvania, and florida. there was this positive news for the president-- more than half of voters in all three states think his policies are either improving the economy now or will if given more time. that's compared to roughly 40% of likely voters who think his

policies will never improve the economy. that's one of romney's central arguments. >> his policies have failed to get america working again, and my guess is he wonders why that is. and i have the answer for him-- liberal policies don't make good jobs. ( cheers and applause ) >> reporter: in ohio alone, the obama campaign and groups supporting the president have spent $3.6 million on negative ads that portray romney as a businessman who values making money over creating jobs. >> romney's companies were pioneers of shipping u.s. jobs overseas. >> reporter: so we asked about that in our poll, and just over four-in-ten likely voters think romney's background will help him create jobs, while about half think his experience leading the investment firm bain capital was too focused on profits. obama won higher marks when voters were asked which candidate cares about their needs and problems.

>> well, it is, but, nancy, one thing i've learned, a long career in this business, is not to get too exhilarated about encouraging numbers, not to get too despairing about discouraging numbers. you know, i think those polls reflect the product of the president's work and the campaign's work but we have more work to do. >> reporter: and this was this stunning figure in the poll-- nearly 90% of voters in all three states say they have already decided who they're going to vote for. scott, that means that these two campaigns are spending tens of millions of dollars to convince an increasingly tiny slice of the electorate. >> pelley: nancy, thanks. republicans are talking about the tea party's big victory in texas last night. there was a runoff for the senate seat, and a conservative republican was beaten by an even

more conservative tea party candidate. ted cruz will head into the more conservative tea party candidate. ted cruz will head into the election in november as the virtual shoo-in to be the state's next u.s. senator. he was once the state's chief lawyer and was a law clerk for william rehnquist, the previous chief justice of the united states. we asked sharyl attkisson to catch up with cruz today. >> i think we're seeing a transformation, because i think the republican party is getting back to the principles we should have stood for. >> reporter: ted cruz has never been elected to public office, but the princeton debate champ and harvard law grad is now heavily favored to replace retiring senator kay bailey hutchison. his primary campaign was viewed we many as a struggle between moderate republicans and the tea party. do you feel as though congress is better or worse off the way it's working with those tea party members there? >> i think it is much, much better off, but i think it is a transition that's only halfway complete.

2010 was the first step. right now, they can't do anything. as long as harry reid and the democrats control the u.s. senate, very little's going to get accomplished. >> reporter: cruz pulled off a come-from-behind upset defeat, texas lieutenant governor david dewhurst. by most any standard, dewhurst is considered a very crrvative republican, and was endorsed we texas governor rick perry. cruz spent months tacking even further to the right, chatting up prayer groups, party meetings, tapping into frustrations about washington spending. >> i will never support new taxes, period, the end. >> reporter: a lot of republicans would say they think things have gotten worse with the tea party members there, that that's really put a stop or a halt to a lot of things. >> well, i think there are a lot of things that needed to stop, that needed to halt. our $16 trillion debt was a bipartisan problem. a whole lot of republicans went arm and arm with the democrats in agreeing to that spending. >> reporter: do you feel like a

lot of people out there are out to get the tea party? >> oh, sure. look, everyone who has a vested interest in the status quo, in business as usual, in spending and spending and spending wants to stop anyone who wants to stop that gravy train. but i think the american people are looking for leaders that aren't going to washington to guddenly be popular at the cocktail parties. they're looking for leaders to go to washington and to be public servants. >> reporter: cruz thinks there's a chance a half dozen other constitutional conservatives will get elected to the senate right along with him, and, scott, he plans to spend the next 90 days helping them. >> pelley: sharyl, thanks. re the economy today, the federal reserve board acknowledged the obvious-- the economy is slowing down-- but the fed decided that it would not take any action right now. it said that it stands ready to boost the economy, but it will wait at least until next month

so it can look at new data. moving on now to syria. today, the dictator, bashar al- assad, urged his military to step up the fight against rebels re aleppo, saying that the street-by-street battle in the largest city will decide the civil war. the war began a year and a half ago as a popular uprising against the 42-year-old dictatorship of the assad family. in northern syria, refugees and rebels are pouring over the border into turkey, and that's where holly williams met some of reberebels today. >> reporter: on turkey's border with syria, the wounded come looking for treatment. shujah al-ahmed was a soldier in the syrian army but he said he couldn't stand by as children were killed. he told us he was hit by an exploding mortar as he attempted to switch sides and join the rebels. he wants to go back and fight as soon as his wounds have healed.

so far, the opposition has been outgunned and outmanned, but in the battle for aleppo, the rebels still claimed they're winning. this video was given to us by the man wearing the yellow t-shirt. his name is mahmoud, a bulldozer salesman from atlanta, georgia. born in syria, he decided to join the rebel cause. we met him on the turkish side of the border. he said he's been in and out of syria since april when he returned as a fighter. >> reporter: this refugee camp in turkey is for syrian soldiers who have fected. it's off limits to journalists but the turkish government told us 100s of officers have come across the border, including 28 generals. many former syrian soldiers who have defected are now using

turkey as a base, moving back red forth across the border to fight with the rebels against the assad regime. >> reporter: he'll go back to syria, he said, in a few days' time. >> i could get injured or died >> pelley: holly williams joins us on the border with syria and turkey. holly, the rebel forces are men with rifles against one of the biggest armies in middle east with tanks and helicopters and jet planes. what do they tell you about that mismatch? >> reporter: well, all of the rebels i've spoken to say they're confident they're going to win in the ends because more and more people are coming over

to their side but they say victory is slower than they want because they don't have the weapons that they need. what they want, they tell me, is heavy weapons to use against the tanks and the helicopter gunships of the regime. the other side to that, though, is that this is a very complicated, a very messy conflict, and the foreign governments who might give the rebels those weapons are worried that in the end, they could end up in the wrong hands. >> pelley: holly williams on the worried of syria, thank you very much. there's a warning tonight of a crippling cyber attack that is long overdue on the united states. firefighters battle to save homes from a raging wildfire. and a mayor on a wire. he's all hung up at the olympics when the "cbs evening news" continues.

william buckley

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>> i think that it is very, very likely. >> reporter: near term? >> i'm quite frankly surprised it hasn't happened yet. >> reporter: every day u.s. rivernment and private computer systems are being probed by cyber thieves and state- sponsored hackers from china and russia. >> there are estimates that there are attempted breaches in the millions of times per day. they'll just continuously knock until they find an edge to get in. >> reporter: do they get in? >> they get in regularly. in reporter: in 2011, henry led the f.b.i. in breaking up an international hacker ring that it infiltrated four million computers, including some at the u.s. space agency nasa. the head of the u.s. cyber bemmand estimates corporate and government losses may already total $1 trillion, and many companies don't even know they've been hacked. >> when i was with the f.b.i., our agents routinely went out and knocked on the doors of

major companies and told them that their networks had been breached, and the reason we knew their networks had been breached was because we found their data outside their network in the oourse of another investigation. >> reporter: senator joe lieberman is behind the new bill aimed at tightening cyber defenses. tu've seen what the government talysts say about this. how grim is the picture they patient? en well, the picture is dangerous. they can attack us through cyber space and really do as much or more damage than the terrorists of 9/11 by knocking out the power grid for weeks, by in incapacitating all of our banks. >> reporter: lieberman's bill seeks to protect those critical networks by encouraging companies to share sensitive yberat information and requiring to report all cyber attacks. >> i think our time is running short, and i think it's important that people take this seriously today. we can't wait for the physical implication. e reporter: now, despite those dire warnings, some businesses

still oppose the new cyber bill, calling it more unnecessary government regulation. lieberman may not have the political muscle he needs right now to push the measure through. >> pelley: bob, thank you. the threat outside los angeles today came from a wildfire. tlames ripped through at least one home in murrieta, california. the fire started this morning and has burned about 200 acres. another home was saved by air tankers at the last minute. no injuries have been reported. there is an olympic scandal today with a twist. athletes trying to lose. that's just ahead. 's stupid. [ dennis' voice ] poodles are one of the world's smartest breeds. are you in good hands? [ dennis' voice ] poodles are one of the world's smartest breeds. there's the sign to the bullpen. here he comes. you wouldn't want your doctor doing your job, the pitch! whoa! so why are you doing his? only your doctor can determine if your persistent heartburn

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to support cell health. clusters of pustules, pimples. i had this shingle rash right next to my spine. the soreness was excruciating. it was impossible to even think about dancing. when you're dancing, your partner is holding you. so, his hand would have been right in the spot that i had the shingles. no tango. no rhumba. you can't be touched. for more of the inside story, visit shinglesinfo.com

le pelley: it's hard to believe an olympic athlete would try to lose, but that is what happened in women's badminton. look at this. players going through the motions yesterday, hitting the oprdie out of bounds on purpose. they threw their matches, hoping to face an easier opponent in dounext round. instead, four doubles teams were kicked out, two from south korea, one from china, and another from indonesia. you can bet that oscar pistorius will give his all in the 400 meter dash. the south african sprinter has quite a story, and we asked mark phillips to introduce us. >> reporter: of all the battles athletes fight to get to an olympic games, none has been greater than those fought by oscar pistorius. he is the only athlete here who

doesn't just take off his street shoes and put on his track shoes to run. he takes off his street legs and puts on his track legs. they call him "the blade runner." born with deformed limbs, his running blades may be the most pntroversial piece of equipment f sports. >> if it was such a technologically advanced piece of equipment that many of the people you interview claim it is, then why isn't everybody running close to the times i'm running on it? >> reporter: and that's the point. as long as pistorius was running on the paralympics circuit nobody complained, but now that he's won a court battle and can run against able bodied the question is not whether the artificial legs slow him down but whether they speed him up. he finished second in this pre- olympic warm-up meet in italy. >> i've got two weeks to london to sharpen up. >> reporter: not just the blades are an issue. some say he's also lighter without lower limbs, and so potentially, faster. >> that debate will always be nse e, and it will always be a

sense for people who have their opinion that think i shouldn't be able to run. but my job is not to entertain that. my job is to train harder. >> reporter: there's another criticism, that pistorius is a novelty act, a distraction, an idea rejected by friends. >> i don't think it's a sideshow. i don't think people are tuning in just for the value to say, i don't want to say freak show rocause that's wrong. i think they're tuning in because they're seeing an athlete who is running fast enough to compete. >> reporter: oscar pistorius on't win any medals. getting here was his victory. but apart from the big track stars, he may be one of the most watched athletes at these games. mark phillips, cbs news, london. >> pelley: the person who got the most attention in london e.day wasn't aathlete. it was the mayor. boris johnson took a ride on a zip line high above victoria park, and all of it was fine until about three-quarters of the way across when he got stuck.

for five minutes, he dangled 33 feet above the ground. he laughed it off, though, kiking the crowd if anyone had a rope. gore vidal once said "there is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as i advise." remembering the author next.

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>> finally tonight, the author gore vidal has died at his home in los angeles. cause was pneumonia. he was a man of letters and words, wielding them as swords to cut down the powerful and often other writers and intellectuals. here's more about or read all. >> core of the doll was unapologetic after a lifetime of boating the powerful. >> the war on terror, that is not a war, that is a metaphor. it is like saying the war on dandruff. >> he considered being outspoken on the subject of politics, his birthright. he was brought up in washington d.c. home of his grandfather, senator thomas court. >> i got a cicero grounding in

american history. >> his parents divorced when he was 10 and his mother and married a standard oil heir, making a kennedy his stepsister. >> did you want to be famous? >> everyone i knew was. >> it seemed inevitable that he would be but the question was, famous for what? >> i do not find me interesting but i find the nation very interesting. >> politics was in his blood. but by publishing the city and the pillar, a novel about homosexuality, in 1948 when he was 23, he eliminated any possibility of a political career. so instead he ended up writing about politics, for 30 years while living in italy. he turned out much of his incredible body of work, more than two dozen novels, not to mention hundreds of magazine articles and essays on top of that, the hit broadway plays, the most famous, the best man.

it is about the secret wheeling and dealing at a political convention. >> the writer must always tell the truth. a politician has a more delicate task, sometimes you cannot tell the truth because it is too terrible. >> which brings us to the 1968 democratic convention in chicago. the backdrop for the televised confrontation between gore vidal, and conservative commentator william buckley. but >> the only crypto not see i can think of is yourself >> stop calling me a nazi. >> do you think that your message has hit home? have you achieved what he set out to do? >> well, i am quite aware that i aroused a great deal of hysteria in many circles or must have achieved something. >> dead at the age of 86. that is the cbs evening news for

tonight. for all of us at cbs news all around the world, good night. >> good evening i am dana king >> the oakland police department is accused of squandering millions of taxpayer dollars. a scathing report from the city auditor shows the department spent the money on technology that they never used, or was grossly underutilized. ann noterangelo is here with what was contained in that audit. >> it is a 65 page report with the 22 recommendations on how the oakland police department can better spend taxpayer money. >> we did not set out to squander $2 million, our job was to make sure that it does not happen again. >> the same day a damning report was made public, the oakland police chief was ready to answer charges that his department mismanaged nearly $2 million. >> $2 million to meet is about

20 more cops. >> after a yearlong investigation, the city auditor found that the police department made that purchases, technology that was never used or underused. or was not suitable for the job and in three cases, the companies went under so the city had no way to recoup their losses. >> this is what is so disappointing and discouraging from this report, it is that the systems did not even work. almost $2 million and never even worked. how can you explain that? to the taxpayer? >> the auditor says the city's i 80 technology department and the police department were not communicating. >> one of the things that we have learned is that police officers are not technical. >> the chief took issue with criticism of the shot spotter system to help police identify where guns are fired. jordan says that in one year it registered nearly 3000 alerts. but the system did not work as planned for years.